Lessons Learnt From Teaching Practices Of Participatory Neighbourhood Planning In China

Presenter: Ying Chang (Department of Urban Planning and Design)

Key words: Planning education; Participatory planning; Neighbourhood planning; Urban China

Healey (2010) has questioned the limitations when planning theories and ideas that have travelled from developed countries to other places. In 2006, a new international university opened in Suzhou China, with close cooperation with Liverpool University in the UK. From 2010, a new programme of Urban Planning and Design (originally entitled Civic Design to accommodate a similar title within our parent department at the University of Liverpool) was launched, and in the spring of 2013, a new module on Neighbourhood Planning was introduced. During this module, participatory planning methods (Barton, 2010; Sanoff, 2000) were introduced and assessed for the group work at local community.   53 students at level 1 have completed the task. This presentation will firstly review the key principles and ethics in higher education, followed by a review of education theories and practices in spatial planning. The main body of this presentation will introduce the teaching practice of Neighbourhood Planning, with a focus on how participatory planning methods were taught, received, developed and applied in the context of urban China. An evaluation of students' learning outcomes were obtained from two resources: student feedback questionnaires at the end of semester and a follow-up survey about two years later  to compare the changes of students' perceptions on the learning outcomes after two years further study on another programme, particularly the difference between group studying at XJTLU and at the University of Liverpool in the UK. The main purpose is to assess the value of the introduction of participatory neighbourhood planning at Level 1 and its contribution to the whole programme. Lessons and experiences will be concluded for future teaching and practices in China.